Prayers and Meditations eBook

I give Thee thanks, O my God, for that Thou hast made
me to be a target for the darts of Thine adversaries
in Thy path. I offer Thee most high praise, O
Thou Who art the Knower of the seen and unseen and
the Lord of all being, that Thou hast suffered me
to be cast into prison for love of Thee, and caused
me to quaff the cup of woe, that I may reveal Thy Cause
and glorify Thy word.

Which of my tribulations am I to recount before Thy
face, O my Lord? Am I to recite before Thee what
in days of old befell me at the hands of the workers
of iniquity among Thy creatures, or to describe the
vexations which have compassed me about in these days
for the sake of Thy good pleasure?

Thanks be to Thee, O Thou the Lord of all names; and
glory be to Thee, O Maker of the heavens, for all
that I have sustained in these days at the hands of
such of Thy servants as have transgressed against Thee,
and of Thy people that have dealt frowardly towards
Thee.

Number us, we implore Thee, with them who have stood
fast in Thy Cause until their souls finally winged
their flight unto the heaven of Thy grace and the
atmosphere of Thy loving-kindness. Thou art, verily,
the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

I implore Thee, O Thou Fashioner of the nations and
the King of eternity, to guard Thy handmaidens within
the tabernacle of Thy chastity, and to cancel such
of their deeds as are unworthy of Thy days. Purge
out, then, from them, O my God, all doubts and idle
fancies, and sanctify them from whatsoever becometh
not their kinship with Thee, O Thou Who art the Lord
of names, and the Source of utterance. Thou art
He in Whose grasp are the reins of the entire creation.

No God is there but Thee, the Almighty, the Most Exalted,
the All-Glorious, the Self-Subsisting.

CXLIII: “Glory be to Thee, O my God! I beg of Thee by Thy...”

Glory be to Thee, O my God! I beg of Thee by
Thy name, the Most Merciful, to protect Thy servants
and Thy handmaidens when the tempests of trials pass
over them, and Thy manifold tests assail them.
Enable them, then, O my God, so to seek refuge within
the stronghold of Thy love and of Thy Revelation,
that neither Thine adversaries nor the wicked doers
among Thy servants, who have broken Thy Covenant and
Thy Testament, and turned away most disdainfully from
the Day-Spring of Thine Essence and the Revealer of
Thy glory, may prevail against them.

They themselves, O my Lord, have waited at the door
of Thy grace. Do Thou open it to their faces
with the keys of Thy bountiful favors. Potent
art Thou to do what Thou willest, and to ordain what
Thou pleasest. These are the ones, O my Lord,
who have set their faces towards Thee, and turned
unto Thy habitation. Do with them, therefore,
as becometh Thy mercy, which hath surpassed the worlds.